Boston University
School of Education

July 7 to July 26, 2013

Three Weeks in
Boston

I
am very pleased that you are contemplating coming to Boston to study
Thomas Jefferson. The resurgence of interest in the founding fathers,
in biography, and in the connection between personal and public life
makes this an ideal time to reassess Jefferson and to think about how
in an egalitarian, multicultural society we can make an
eighteenth-century slave owner and aristocrat relevant.

Thomas
Jefferson was a man of paradoxes: a man who craved friendship, yet was
intensely private; an aristocrat who detested privilege; an urban
intellectual who feared cities; a slave holder who preached equality; a
peaceful man who sanctioned violent rebellion; a dreamer and
philosopher who served as a hard-nosed and cunning diplomat. In this
three-week Institute, we will try to explain these paradoxes and deepen
our understanding of one of the most important figures in American
history, a figure who is fascinating, influential, inspiring, and
embattled.

We
will look at Jefferson’s philosophy and worldview in an
attempt to understand these paradoxes. But we will also examine the
personality behind the philosophy. Today scholars look at temperament,
illness, death, passion, parents, mentors, money, and friends. They
argue that Jefferson can be understood, that historians do not have to
resign themselves to mystery and paradox. Probing beneath the surface,
they find a darker, more complex, and always interesting Jefferson.
Furthermore, they argue, the inner man connects to and helps us
understand the public man.

Pursuing the inner Jefferson for three weeks will not be just a
voyeuristic venture. In the quality and originality of his mind,
catholicity of his interests, and felicity of his writing, Jefferson
was a genius. It is interesting and instructive to live for three weeks
with such a genius, who thought not only about constitutions and
constellations, but about how we might live happy, productive lives.

Boston
is an ideal city in which to base our study of Jefferson. We will
arrange trips to the Massachusetts Historical Society, which has an
unparalleled collection of Jefferson manuscripts, an electronic archive
of Jefferson's papers, and letters written by Jefferson's daughters;
and to the John Adams National Historical Park and the library where
Adams wrote to Jefferson his half of the most famous presidential
correspondence in American history. There were will also be optional
field trips to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and to the
Essex-Peabody Museum in Salem. All the resources of Boston University,
including the use of the library and computer center, will be available
to participants, who will be given the status and privileges of
Visiting Scholars. During the summer, the City of Boston hosts
concerts, plays, and special events, and its permanent cultural and
historical attractions are plentiful, particularly as they relate to
the history of early America.

Focusing
on Jefferson’s personality and character and connecting them
to his public career will be the theme of the first week. We will start
reading Jefferson’s letters, discuss his views on education,
and visit the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In the second week, we will expand our understanding of the inner
Jefferson by examining his views on religion, his role as a family man,
and his correspondence with John Adams. We will hear from Joanne
Freeman http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/freeman.html
and Jan Lewis http://www.mfa.newark.rutgers.edu/faculty/janlewis.htm
and visit Adams
National Historical Park.

The purpose of the
Institute will be to look at Jefferson from as many angles as possible
to deepen our understanding of his character and personality and thus
to shed light on America’s founding and the social and
cultural history of the early Republic. The Institute will take a
topical approach, looking in depth at such subjects as education,
intimate life, family, money, religion, science, and slavery. During
the three weeks, we will also ponder some larger questions:

Is the intimate life
knowable?

Does it connect to the
public man or woman?

Do we each fashion our
own version of Jefferson to reflect our values and needs?

What is
Jefferson’s legacy?

We
will ask some pedagogical questions:

What role should
biography and primary sources play in history instruction?

How does teaching
biographies fit with state standards and high stakes testing?

How do we teach
intimate information about famous Americans to young people?

How can teachers be
honest and realistic yet still inspire students and encourage
citizenship?

Institute Leaders

As
the Director of the Institute and a Senior Research Fellow at Boston
University’s School of Education, I will be leading some of
the discussions. I became interested in Thomas Jefferson while
researching my book, A Call to Heroism: Renewing America’s
Vision of Greatness, which was published in 2002 (Atlantic Monthly
Press), and while lecturing at schools around the country. There is a
section on Jefferson in my book. More information about my publications
and visits to schools can be found on my web site: http://www.heroesinamerica.org/

I
am currently studying the changing nature of American history education
with a particular interest in exploring the reasons why we study
history and the tension between the goals of a realistic portrait of
the past and civic inspiration. In 2002, I spoke on this subject at the
White House Forum on American History, Civics and Service. My
background includes academic history, secondary school teaching, and
school administration. In the summers of 2005 and 2009, I led an NEH We
The People Institute: George
Washington and His
Legacy: Myth, Symbol and Reality.
In the summers of 2006 and 2008, I led this NEH Institute on Thomas
Jefferson. For the last several years, I have been the project director
for four seminars in Teaching American History.

We
are fortunate to have with us for the three weeks R.
B. Bernstein, http://everybookandcranny.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/thomas-jefferson-a-biography-by-r-b-bernstein/
author of a one- volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, which Gordon
Wood called “the best short biography of Jefferson ever
written.” Bernstein has written nineteen books on American
Constitutional and legal history. Having spent six years immersed in
studying Jefferson, as well as creating a high school history
curriculum, Bernstein will be an ideal lecturer, commentator and
Consultant for the Institute. He is currently working on a biography of
John Adams. Bernstein teaches at New York and City College.

Joan
Musbach, Senior Consultant for Ladue Schools, St. Louis County Missouri
served as Master Teacher in the NEH Institutes on Thomas Jefferson in
2006 and 2008. Joan brings insights for teaching about Thomas Jefferson
to eighth and eleventh grade students gleaned from four decades of
classroom experience. She also highly valued her participation in the
Stratford Hall-Monticello Summer Institute for Teachers. She will
attend all sessions and work with institute participants as the Master
Teacher on their papers and projects.

Peter
Wright will serve as Project Coordinator/Participant Liaison for the
Institute. Originally a participant in the 2005 Institute George Washington and His
Legacy: Myths, Symbols, and Reality,
he served as Project Coordinator and Master Teacher for the 2009
Institute as well as Program Coordinator for this program’s
Institutes held in the summer of 2006 and 2008. Currently, Wright is an
educational consultant, behavioral and school placement specialist in
the process of completing his Ed.S. in Mental Health Counseling at the
University of Missouri, Columbia.

Readings

Participants
will read in advance of the Institute Joseph Ellis’s American
Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson,
as well as R.B. Bernstein’s Jefferson.
Both books are available in paperback. We will be reading many primary
sources, so participants should bring to the Institute the Library of
America edition of Jefferson’s Writings,
selected and edited by Merrill D. Peterson, which has basic documents
and a large selection of letters. We will concentrate on the letters
because, as Andrew Burstein notes, Jefferson’s
“letter writing holds the greatest potential for revealing
our subject’s character.” Repeatedly Jefferson
mingles discussion of public policy with self-revelatory asides and
digressions. A book of readings, which includes articles, interviews,
and essays, will be provided at the start of the Institute. In the
evenings, we will look at and critique Jefferson videos.

The
Institute will emphasize scholarship but with practical application.
Teachers will be introduced to primary sources, professional articles,
and web sites they can use in their classrooms. They will be asked to
reflect on how Jefferson can be made relevant and compelling to
students in the twenty-first century and how to deal with the myths and
misinformation that surround this iconic figure.

Participation
and collaboration will be an important component, and everyone will be
asked to write a curriculum unit or a short paper incorporating
insights gained at the Institute relevant to classroom use.
Participants will share their summaries with others at the Institute,
as well as with the larger professional community through the
Institute’s web site.

Logistics

Most
of the Institute sessions will be held between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
with a break for lunch, leaving most late afternoons, evenings and
weekends free for study, reflection, and recreation. There will be
ample time set aside to meet individually with R.B. Bernstein, Joan
Musbach, Peter Wright, and me.

The
stipend for participants will be $2,700, half of which will be given on
opening day and the other half at the conclusion of the Institute.

Participants
will be housed in their own rooms in four-bedroom suites with two
bathrooms, a common room, and a kitchen in a modern, air-conditioned
residence (the 10 Buick Street Residence Hall) for which they will be
charged a reasonable university rate for the City of Boston, currently
estimated at $64.00 per night per person.
The apartment complex is
situated on the Boston University campus. More information
about the 10 Buick Street Residence Hall can be found at this link:http://www.bu.edu/housing/residences/stuv/10buick/

Application

On this web site you will
find the Application Information and Instructions provided by NEH. The
completed application should be postmarked no later than March 4, 2013
and should be addressed as follows:

Dr.
Peter Gibbon
Senior Research Fellow
Boston University School of Education
Two Silber Way
Boston, Massachusetts 02215peterhgibbon@comcast.net

Perhaps
the most important part of the application is the essay of no more than
four double-spaced pages that must be submitted as part of the complete
application. This essay should include any personal and academic
information that is relevant; reasons for applying to the Institute;
your interests, both intellectual and personal in the topic;
qualifications to do the work of the project and make a contribution to
it; what you hope to accomplish by participation; and the relation of
the study to your teaching.

I look forward to reading your application and would be happy to answer
any questions you may have about any aspect of the program.